Richard Hyatt: School board's mealtime draws fire

Just when you thought the Muscogee County School Board had learned how to behave, they spend most of a meeting talking about who should pick up the tab for dinner.

After decades of backstage meals, the discussion last week was about whether to continue the monthly repasts and the suggestion that dinner should be served in the sunshine.

We don't usually care what Rob Varner eats after a meeting and most of the time it doesn't matter if he dines with Naomi Buckner or Cathy Williams.

But when schools are being closed, teachers are being laid off and there's not enough textbooks to go around, folks were upset to hear that the board is spending $3,000 a year so they won't have to go home from meetings with an empty stomach.

This started 26 years ago when times were flush. Our appointed board had as many as 15 members and it wasn't unusual for sessions to go well past midnight, so having food delivered was almost a necessity.

Staff members assembled a list of caterers and rotated among them every month. Dinner was served at work sessions and regular board meetings. When the elected board was seated in 1993, members voted to pay for the food with interest generated from school activity funds.

Meals were never a secret. Board members were joined by administrators, teachers and, when they were invited, reporters.

It's a perk, albeit a simple one. Members are paid $12,000 a year and their only extras are a Georgia High School Association pass for two to any sporting event in the state, the ability to buy into the school health plan, a reserved parking place at board meetings and two meals a month worth about $25.

Left unanswered is the appearance that having a majority of board members together at mealtime violates Georgia's Open Meeting Law. It's naïve to believe that talk around the table involves only Todd Gurley's chances for the Heisman or whether Pat Hugley Green has taken a ride on the zip line.

Once again, key board members remind us they're tone deaf. It's only $3,000, they say, showing an inability to connect with their constituents -- ones struggling to buy pencils and paper or afford lunch in the school cafeteria.

Maybe next month they'll decide whether they want ice cream on their apple pie.

-- Richard Hyatt is an independent correspondent. Reach him at hyatt31906@knology.net.

This story was originally published September 13, 2014 at 10:02 PM with the headline "Richard Hyatt: School board's mealtime draws fire."